Analysis Of The Machinist Opening

The Machinist ( Brad Anderson)

The youtube video of the opening scene cut off a couple seconds of footage at the begining. In these couple of seconds there are several aspects that add to this opening scene including ambient sound, diagetic sound and and two titles. These two titles are "FILMAX ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS" and "A JULIO FERNÀNDEZ PRODUCTION". These are presnted slighting to the left hand side of the screen in Reverse block. In the background we hear first an ambient sound of police sirens. This connotes that somthing violent has occured. It then proceeds so we were a diagetic sound of a soft pant and struggle, as a viewer we can not see what is happening so we are lead to beleive that someone is struggerling with something, this connotes that this person is inexperienced.

The darkness fades to reveal the person who was struggerling. At first glance you see him rolling soemthing into a carper, through a closer look you see feet sticking out of the end of the carpet. Immediatly this connotes that to the viewer that the person is trying to hide the body, creating an atmosphere of secrets. This is hightened as we have been led into a situation where we are clueless as to what is happening.
The camera is located in the same position the enrtire extract. behind the window, looking into the apartment. It is in a point of view shot which connotes that there is a person on the outside looking in, watching. The person who we asume is the protagonist is paying no attention towards the camera; or the person in which the cmaera is meant to represent. This could suggest that the person looking in may not be a person at all, but a ghost, spirit or subconcious.

Sound within this scene is mostly all diagetic noises made by the protagonist through grunting showing his stress and struggle. Over the top we hear the incidental music which begins on the title of the actress "Jennifer Jason-Gijón". The music is eerie and sinister creating a ghostly atmosphere. It is filled with long droning sounds. The noise remids me of the incidental music used in the famous shower scene of Physco by the well known director of horror films Alfred Hitchhock.  The music begins on this actress suggesting that something violent or negative may happen to her at some point during the film. This music stretches out across the entire of whats remaing of the extract. The music is made up of multiple layers of different notes an isntruments which do not compliemnt each other, this connotes to the audience what is going on inside of the protagonist's head at this moment in time.

FILMAX ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS
A JULIO FERNÀNDEZ PRODUCTION
CHRISTIAN BAKE
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH
AITANA SÁNCHES- GIJÒN
JOHN SHARIAN
WRITTEN BY SCOTT KOSAR
DIRECTED BY BRAD ANDERSON

Analysis Of The Silence Of The Lamb Opening

The Silence Of The Lambs (Jonathan Demme)

The opening sequence to The Silence Of The Lambs begins in total darkness, all we hear is incidental music. This music is filled with loud grand violins. This gives a very dramatic start to the movie suggesting that it will be filled with breath taking moments. The darkness fades to reveal a bare tree, this connotes emtiness and isolation. In the bottom right hand corner in white style font reads where the movie is taking place at that moment in time. This sets the scene helping the viewers to feel more involved in the film.

The first person we see is Jodie Foster. She is presnted from a high angle. This suggest to the viewer that she is weak and fimble. Women are often presented in this way in films as they are seen as the 'damsel in disstress'. This is done so men can be used as the heroic protagonist which can swoop in and save the day. In this case we see no men comming to help. She is challenging sterotypes and fighting for herself.

Jodie Foster is then presented from a low angle looking up at her as she reaches the top. This again challenges the sterotype women face in the film industry and reveals that this character fights for what she wants.

Once she reaches the top she is seen running away from the camera. The camera stays in a mid shot at the same distacne behind her. This connotes that she may be running away from something or someone. Over the top of her running are titles are actos, actresses and people who took part in the making of this film. They are presented in the centre of the screen in bold black capitialsed font with a white rim. This makes them stand out considerable in comoarrsion to the previous font stating where the scene was taken place. This connotes that these people are of more importance and the director wanted the viewers to know who was there to help the creation of this film.



In this close up on Jodie foster we see the determination on her face. This tells us a little bit about this characters personality as she is commited.

This is a low angle of jodie foster climbing a climbing aparatus. This is now clear to the viewer that she is not running away from someone or something but running a course. This angle demonstrates the power she has gained over the track and the lengths she is willing to go to to progress. The climb symbolises an obsticle she may have to come across during the film.

In this shot we see Jodie Foster arguable unessersarily flip over the net. This is done to demonstrate the strength she posses as a women, contradicting all sterotypes put against women in thriller movie conventions.

A STRONG HEART/ DEMME PRODUCTION

JODIE FOSTER

ANTHONEY HOPKINS

SCOTT GLEN

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMB

TED LWVINE

ANTHONEY HEALD

BROOKE SMITH

DIANE BAKER

KASI LEMMONS

CHARLES NAPIER

TRACEY WALTER

ROGER CORMAN

RON VAKJTER

DANNY DARST

FRANKI FAISON

PAUL LAZAR

DAN BUTLES

CHRIS ISAAK

Analysis Of The Purge Opening

The Purge (James Demonaco)

The opening scene for The Purge begins with it's title sequence. An off black background with white writing on begins the titles with "UNIVSERAL PICTURES PRESENTS". As the titles are changing it almsot flickers away as if you were watching a faulty movie. This gives a run down impression straight away. The colour of the background being off black, having hints of yellow and green quickly flash onto the screen as the titles dissapear to the next set, help to give this impression. 

After the second set of titles the flash of off colour appears again, only this time for a longer and harsher set of time. the colour are more vibrant and more obvious to the viewer. The image changed to a CCTV footage of a man mudering someone with a gun and running away. The victim falls to the ground. In the top right hand coner of the screen is the time, date, area and what it is. This connotes to the viewers that everything is being watched. All of these hideous and grotesque crimes are being commited and yet no one is stopping it. An idea of isolation a fear is what comes into the viewers mind. It connotes that you are alone in the world and have to defend yourself. 

Over the top of these titles and footages is incidental music of a very light and pleasent tune. Instruments used in this include violins and pianos. This music is used to juxtapose agains the images you are seeing. This is done as the movie is about anything against the law for a limited amount of time is legal, this includes muder. So when we see these harsh images of brutual muder throughout the title sequence it is juxtaposed against this light and beautiful tune, suggesting that all of these crimes are good and postive. 

A later image shows a victim on thr gound alone, whislt being beaten by a baseball bat. The lighting in this insert all comes from the one street lamp in which the victim is hurled up against. This  could connote that goodness is surrounded by darkness. The use of lighting specifically in the left of the screen means that the audience is drawn to the victim.

The grainy, deliberately poor quality of the camera helps to convey the CCTV footage, giving verisimilitude to each shot, as each is made believable for the viewer. The choice to use CCTV is noteable as, it suggests to the audience that they are witnessing something they shouldn't be. The shaky nature of each shot helps to convey the sense of unease and terror within the opening scene.


The use of fire in this shot relies on the viewers pragmatic understanding of fire and its effects on the environment and symbolic imagery. The vibrant red flame, also gives connotations of anger and pain, suggesting that the film will likely focus on these themes, themes which are common in thrillers.




The uniform, straight positioning of the bodies, immediately susggest that the victims were part of some sort of ceremonial or religious lilling. This use of violence in this manner is often used by thriller antagonists, as often the victims have no link to the antagonist, meaning the antagonist is completely random in their actions.

This long shot establishes a women attempting to climb over a railing in escape. She gets dragged back by serveral dimly lit men, this connotes that they are threatening.

The use of the sterile, plain white background gives connotations of innocence and purity to the viewer. This is thereby juxtaposed by the blood staining left by the victim.

The bold, white, sans serif style of the font used for the titles is kept away from the events shown on screen, meaning the viewer is not distracted by their presence, but they are not completely oblivious either.

UNIVSERAL PICTURES PRESENTS

A PLATINUM DUNES/BLUMHOUSE/WHYNOT PRODUCTION

ETHAN HAWKE

LENA HEADEY

MAX BURKHOLDER

EDWIN HODGE      TONY OLLER

RHYS WAKEFILED      ARIJA BAREIKIS

CASTING BY LISA FIELDS

COSTUME DEGIN BY LISA NORCIA

MUSIC BY NATHAN WHITEHEAD

EDITIED BY PETREGVOZOAS

PRODUCTION DEGIN BY MELANIE PALZIS-JONES

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY JACQUES JOUFFRET

CO-PRODUCER JEANETTE VOLTURNO-BRILL

PRODUCED BY JASON BLUM, p.g.a.

PRODUCED BY SEBASTIAN K. LEMERCIER, p.g.a.

PRODUCED BY MICHAEL BAY

                       ANDREW FORM

                    BRAD FULLER 

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY JAMES DEMONACO

Analysis of Mulholland Drive Opening

Mulholland Drive (David Lynch) Analysis
opening scene

Mullholland Drive begins with reverse block revealing the main titles. These titles are : ALAIN SARDE PRESENTS; A LES FILMS ALAIN SARDE/ASYMMETRICAL PRODUCTION; A FILM BY DAVID LYNCH.
The capitalised effect shows that these people were important for the production of the movie. Fans of the directors (David Lynch) previous work would recognise the artistic way in which he directs.

A fade up to reveal a purple glow background and close up of black figured shadows dancing. This fade begins at the same time as incidental music begins. The music is light and delicate with only several piano notes playing repetitively. The figures are shown in a close up and everything is slowed down. This gives the idea of intimatcy between these dancers.

After several seconds of this the music takes a sharp turn adding in instruments such as Drums, Saxophone, Upright Bass, Trombone and Trumpet. These extra intruments are followed by a long/wide shot revealing that the shadows were swing dancing. There is now many more couple and the image in clear filled with colour. However the one colour which is shown more striking and virbant is red. This could connote passion and lust or even danger. As the pace of the music speads up more and more dancers are added in. They are portayed at different lengths of the camera. Some are shown in an extreme close up so the viewers can only see there feet. Some are shown in a long shot and are shown much smaller than the others. This demonstates overlapping editing technique creating a busy and hysterical envirment of the 1940'S. It almost puts the viewer into an awkard postion as they do not understand what it is they are actually watching and why all these crazy up in air dance sequences are happening.

A white, almost transparent image appears over the dancers. It moves around the screen uncontrollable covering different areas. Soon the image solidify's revealing three people staring up towards what seems to be a light, cheering and clapping is added in on top of the music. This creates an idea of the viewers that these three people are famous. The imagery of it being transparent could suggest that all fame is fake and just controlled by other with higher power. The idea of the transparents image moving around the screen shows that they are not in control.

The swing dance music increases into a crescendo, from there the music fades out and the applause increases. The three figures dissapear to leave the younger girl by herself. This could connote that she has made it into the industry. On contradictory level, the transparents and white affect could connote purity, as if she hasent been damaged by the industry yet. Fame is her dream and this is showing the viwers that she is looking up towards her dream.


The transparents image continues on into the next scene overlaying ontop of the red blurredness. This connotes to the audeicne that the two extra people in the trio are of importance to the accomplishments of this young girls life/ dream.

The purple background dissapears along with the esamble of dancers, leaving a red image. The ghost like figure of the girl remains for a short second and dissapears aswell. As a viewer we are left with a point of view shot and a person looking down at red silk. This person could be the main girl we had just previously seen. The applause is replaced with non diegteic gushing sounds, these souds fade into a diagetic heavy breathing. This creates a creepy and confusing state of tension for the viewer. The extract just whitnessed beforehand jusxtaposes the present image; suggesting that is the previous extract created a  more warm and happy feeling, with its bright and virbant colours and quick pace chaos. Then this extract juxtaposes that, through slow close up camera pans acorss a bed and slow detailed breaths. Connoting thst somethign dangerous happenend. The red colour may demonsrate danger. The close up shots create anticipating, nerve racking tension.
The camera hovers over the pillow for a slight moment as the breathing contrunies then proceeds to zoom into the pillow, then a fade to darkness.

Within the pitch black darkness, a softer version of the non diagetic sounds of gushing come back, over lapping this is a droning sound of one deep note. This droning sound adds to the negative atomsphere previously created by all of the representation of suspence and danger. Out of the darkness reveals a road sign which reads "MULHOLLAND DR." This reveals to the audience more infomaton about the film, drawing them in bit by bit. The camera is getting loser and closer to the road sign but in the way its presented its connotes that they are in a car. who is untellable and makes a viewer want to carry on watching to unlock all the mysteries.

MULHOLLAND DR.

JUSTIN THEROUX

NAOMI WATTS

LAURA ELENA HARRING

ANN MULER

DAN HEDAYA

MARK PELLE GRINO

BRENT BRISCOE

AND

ROBERT FARSTEB

MUSIC COMPOSED AND CONDUCTED BY

ANGELO BADALAMENTI

EDITED BY

MARY SWEENY

PRODUCTION DESIGNER

JACK FISK

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

PETRE DEMING,A.S.C

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

PIERRE EDELMAN

PRODUCED BY

 MARY SWEENEY      ALAIN SARDE

NEAL EDELSTEIN

MICHAEL POLAIRE

TONY KRANTZ

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY DAVID LYNCH

Conventions of Thriller

• Heroic Protagonist



Example of a Protagonist

• Wrong mans shoes
• Innocent
• Ex Military
• Agent/Spies
• Bond
• mise en scene (suits)
•  Antagonist 
• Politphical/religious beliefs 
• Psychological disorders
• scars
• Suspense
•  Low tones lighting
• Portayed with music
• crescendo



Example of a Antagonist

• used to refelct the mood of the protagonist
• Fight Sequences
• Mission
• Themes
• Mystery
• Esponage
• Violence
• discreet 
• publicly